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A young mother has been jailed for 11 years for stabbing her occasional boyfriend as they had sexual intercourse after texting him to say men should only be used as "human sacrifice".

Zoe Adams, 19, had dressed up as a clown and put a pillow over Kieran Bewick's head to make their encounter more exhilarating on July 29 last year, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

In what she described as an "overreaction", she whispered, "Trust me", to the then 17-year-old Bewick before stabbing him five times in the chest, arm and thigh with a 10-inch knife, collapsing his lung.

Having seized Adams' iPhone, the court heard of images she had saved on the device, which included a blood-soaked woman with the caption "Murder is like a bag of chips: you can't stop after just one".

The device also had a text message to her victim reading: "I don't think about males unless said male is strapped up and being used as a human sacrifice - you should be grateful you are not part of it."

Adams claimed she could not remember the incident, but sentencing, Judge James Adkin said her "cruel and sadistic" actions were deliberately intended to cause harm to her victim.

"I am sure that by that time you had already become disinhibited by drink and drugs and the more sadistic side of your personality had come to dominate," said Judge Adkin, ruling that Adams is a dangerous offender.

In his victim impact statement, Mr Bewick said he had struggled to sleep since the attack, which left him with the injury to his lung and pneumonia.

His statement said: "I struggle with the knowledge that someone I genuinely cared about would do this to me".

"Just after I got out of hospital, this thought played on my mind a lot".

"But having had time to think about it, I am convinced that she planned it. It wasn't personal. She was going to do it to someone and it just happened to be me. Strangely, that makes it easier to deal with."

He was going to be scarred mentally and emotionally for the rest of his life, he said, adding: "I have always had a fear of clowns and Zoe knew this. This will now only increase my fear of clowns."

In a text message, Mr Bewick had told her that a barefoot clown was his worst nightmare.

His barrister then read aloud the defendant's text message to Mr Bewick, which read: "I don't think about males unless said male is strapped up and being used as a human sacrifice - you should be grateful you are not part of it."

Zoe Adams, seen left in a police mugshot and right in a laboratory

Mr Bewick, a fantasy novelist, was left with life-threatening injuries after his attacker plunged the knife twice into his chest.

Earlier in the hearing, Adams claimed she could not remember stabbing her occasional lover, saying the attack was brought on by him kissing her neck.

"I did stab him - but I overreacted," she told the court, dismissing the evidence found on her mobile phone as "a joke".

Mr Bewick had written and published his own dark fantasy novel called Ascendence. It was a topic they shared an interest in.

She had been given a copy of the book, which quotes a female character saying: "I knelt on Greg's chest, with my blade positioned carefully at his heart."

Adams claimed she never read it and told the court she had no idea why police found a record on her phone of a search about the sentence for attempted murder - the charge she originally faced.

The judge dismissed her version of events, siding with the now 18-year-old Mr Bewick, and sentenced her on Wednesday.